TLDRs;
- Oracle, SoftBank, and CoreWeave take massive loans to fund OpenAI.
- Oracle may borrow $100 billion over four years for AI projects.
- SPVs and non-recourse loans shift risk but don’t remove it.
- Data center expansion drives high costs, requiring advanced AI infrastructure.
OpenAI’s rapid growth strategy is reshaping financial commitments for its major partners, leaving companies like Oracle, SoftBank, and CoreWeave with a mounting debt load approaching $100 billion.
While OpenAI itself remains largely debt-free, the responsibility for financing its expansion has shifted to those providing infrastructure and investment support.
Partners Assume Billions in Debt
Major technology and investment firms have taken on significant loans to support OpenAI’s ambitious expansion plans. Oracle, SoftBank, and CoreWeave collectively borrowed at least $30 billion to fund AI-related infrastructure, including new data center construction.
Additional loans of roughly $28 billion were extended to groups such as Blue Owl Capital and Crusoe, illustrating the scale of financial exposure tied to OpenAI’s growth.
Banks are also discussing further financing, with an estimated $38 billion potentially going to Oracle and Vantage Data Centers. These funds are intended to accelerate large-scale AI infrastructure development, including state-of-the-art data campuses in multiple U.S. locations.
Oracle Bears the Heaviest Burden
Among OpenAI’s partners, Oracle faces the most substantial financial risk. Analysts expect the company to borrow as much as $100 billion over the next four years to meet obligations linked to OpenAI’s contracts.
These arrangements rely on OpenAI generating sufficient revenue to cover payments, with contract terms often opaque and including take-or-pay minimums, varying term lengths, and potential early termination clauses.
CoreWeave, another partner, is managing a $22.4 billion OpenAI deal, with debt currently at $11 billion at an average interest rate of 11%. About $3.6 billion is due by mid-2026, emphasizing the importance of refinancing if demand for OpenAI services slows.
Risk Management Through Financing Structures
To mitigate exposure, many loans involve complex financing structures such as special purpose vehicles (SPVs) and non-recourse loans. These arrangements transfer risk to lenders and restrict claims to financed assets if obligations are unmet.
However, these mechanisms do not remove the underlying financial risk. Should OpenAI’s growth trajectory falter, project finance banks and data center infrastructure providers could face liquidity challenges, highlighting the fragile balance of these high-stakes investments.
Data Center Expansion Drives Spending
Data center development remains a key driver of partner debt. Vantage Data Centers, for instance, plans a $25 billion campus in Texas with 1.4 gigawatts of capacity. Additional campuses in Virginia and Ohio will expand the company’s footprint to nearly 782 megawatts across the U.S.
These projects require advanced liquid cooling systems, ultra-high-density racks, and energy-efficient infrastructure to support AI workloads.
Vendors are providing modular power distribution, backup generators, and specialized HVAC systems to meet these technical demands, with construction timelines compressed to 2026–2028 targets.
The scale of these projects underlines why OpenAI’s partners are assuming such significant debt. While OpenAI remains largely debt-free, the financial burden of powering the AI revolution is increasingly falling on the companies building the infrastructure behind it.
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